A blog devoted to my interests which include anarchism and social movements, history, archeology, and anything else I choose to write about.

Tuesday, April 28, 2009

African Anarchism - Zimbabwe, Toyi Toyi Artz Kollektive

Ujamaa:Ten-Points of Cooperation and Self-Management

-these ten points outline the characteristics of the people's cooperative political economy we strive for in the revolution.

a). Self-Management: Do not delegate power in others.

b). Harmony: Unite the whole and the parts in the Rugare/Uhuru Network.

c). Federation: The movement should not be chaotic but coherent, with unity between the whole and the parts on a regional, national and international levels.

d). Direct Action: Anti-capitalist, anti-bureaucratic, so that the people are the active subjects through direct democracy.

e).Coordinated Self-Defense: Freedom and self-management must be defended against the totalitarian bureaucracy and the imperialist bourgeoisie.

f). Cooperation in the countryside and self-management in the city: Agriculture can be based on the self-managed company whose model can be the agro-industrial complex. In the city, industries and services should be self-managed and their administrative councils should be constituted by direct producers, with no ruling class or intermediaries.

g). Production: Unionised work should be converted into freely associated work without the bourgeoisie or bureaucracy.

h). All power to the assembly: No-one should decide on behalf of the people or usurp their functions by means of professional politics. Delegation of powers should not be permanent but should be given to delegates who are elected and recallable by the assembly.

i). No delegation of politics: There should be no parties, no vanguards, elites, directors, managers. Bureaucracy kills the spontaneity of the masses and destroys their creative capacity and revolutionary activity, converting them into a passive people and a docile instrument of the power elites.

j). Socialisation and not rationalisation of wealth: The following must take the most important roles: the syndicates, the co-operatives, local self-managed societies, popular organisations, all kinds of associations, local, regional, national, continental and world federal self-governments.

a) Rugare/ Uhuru

Rugare/Uhuru is the absence of all forms of domination and exploitation. All people are fundamentally equal, and should have the freedom to live their lives as they see fit, as long as they do not harm the freedom of others. It is opposed to capitalism because capitalism is a vicious profit system that is based on the exploitation of the workers and the poor to the benefit of a small class of bosses and top government figures. It is opposed to the state (courts, army, bureaucracy) because the state is not there to look after everyone; instead its role is to keep the ruling class in power. Racism, sexism and other forms of special oppression are primarily the product of capitalism and the state. In Rhodesia, racism was created to "justify", strengthen and deepen the exploitation of the Black Working Class in the farms, mines and factories. Capitalism and the state cannot be reformed away. They must be resisted and defeated. The only people who can fight and overthrow capitalism, the state and all forms of oppression, are the working and poor people. This is so because they have no vested interest in the system. Also they have power in their ability to organise (particularly at their work-places), and because they produce the wealth of the world. Only a productive class can build a free, anti-authoritarian society because only such a class is not based on exploitation.

Instead of capitalism, Rugare/Uhuru stems from a free people's economic system in which workers and peasants directly manage the land, and factories, and use these resources to produce for the benefit of all. In place of the state, Uhuru relies on people's management of their own affairs through grassroots, workplace and community councils, united at the local, regional and international levels.

Racism, sexism and other forms of special oppression are primarily the product of capitalism and the stateI view the State as merely an enzyme that lowers the costs of the oppression which pre-exists it.